Project Censored

First up, Mickey and Eleanor dive into some critical media literacy including AI-generated videos and images that ping our confirmation biases, making it all the more important to stay vigilant in analyzing content, regardless of whether or not we want it to be true. We also look at patterns of mis and disinformation, tools and tips for media consumers and creators, and more. 

 

Next up, Katie Jones from Fractracker joins the show to talk about the shadowy connection between data centers and fracking. Katie talks about how data centers are in many ways the new fracking boom, and are using many of the same loopholes and tactics to push through public opposition while also of course demanding a power surge, mostly coming from fossil fuels. Katie and I also debunk some of the propaganda around how good data centers are for your community, and highlight Fractracker tools to educate, engage and organize in your home place. 

Eleanor Goldfield & Mickey Huff host this week’s program.

 

First up, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with professor of communications Dr. Steve Macek to talk about Trumps war on epistemic institutions. Dr. Macek shares specific examples of attacks on vital research that leaves millions of Americans without the necessary knowledge to address basic needs such as hunger and thirst. Mickey and Steve also dissect some deja vu news - the where are they now for stories previously uplifted by Project Censored and ignored by corporate media. Such analysis not only tracks trends in corporate media but also highlights the importance of thinking of news less as a fleeting headline but rather as continuously developing stories that require attention on a rolling rather than 24-hour blip basis. 

Next up, cohost Eleanor Goldfield sits down with researcher and associate director at the Eisenhower Media Network Christian Sorensen to talk about how the military is a tool of corporate capture, how the military industrial complex hurts the working class here at home, medias bedazzling of military life, and how the US empires greed actually in the long term hurts its own hegemonic objectives. 

 

Notes: 

Dr. Steve Macek is a media scholar and professor of communications at North Central College. 

 

Christian Sorensen is a researcher focused on the bundling of military and big business. A U.S. military veteran, he is associate director at the Eisenhower Media Network. His research is available at thebusinessofwar.substack.com.

Eleanor Goldfield & Mickey Huff host this week’s program.

 

In the first part of the program we welcome back political and legal geographer Dr. Austin Kocher to talk about the immigration news that never makes the news. Dr. Kocher talks about overcrowded and deadly detention centers, the 287g clause that transforms your local law enforcement into ICE officers, the fundamental flaw in the US immigration legal system, and how we shouldnt think of borders as a matter of what they are, but rather what they do in service of the state. 

Next up, Mickey Huff sits down with frequent guest and political analyst Nolan Higdon to dissect some recent news, focusing especially on AI: what can history tell us about the unintelligence of artificial intelligence, how deep fakes are crowbarring the political divide even further and deeper, the corporate capture of the classroom, and more.  

This week, were covering two things youll never hear about on corporate media - or if you do, theyll be demonized: whistleblowers, and targeted boycott movements. 
First up, were joined by a Capital One whistleblower who talks about how the companys internal dealings with Israeli weapons manufacturers chafes against the companys external PR campaign of progressive and diversity politics. The whistleblower outlines the so-called proper channels they attempted to utilize in addressing their concerns, and what organizing work theyre doing now to hold Capital One accountable to not only their clients but to international law. 

Next up, were joined by two organizers with the Eject Elbit campaign focused on decoupling the Israeli weapons manufacturer from the financial institutions it relies on. Scotty and Liza share the BDS precedent for their work, recent wins, and upcoming goals. They talk about the medias framing of their work, not least of all using and twisting their Jewishness while continuing to silence and obscure Palestinian voices and calls for justice.  

Leonardo Flores is a co-founder of the Venezuela Solidarity Network. He previously worked as an organizer with CODEPINK and as an analyst with the Venezuelan Embassy in the U.S. Leonardo was born in Venezuela and maintains close ties to social movements that have transformed the country over the past twenty-six years. 

Dr. Shir Hever is a scholar of Israel's occupation, apartheid and genocide, born in Israel and now living in Germany. He is the managing director of the Alliance for Justice between Israelis and Palestinians and his latest book is The Privatization of Israeli Security.


Brendan Ballou is a former federal prosecutor and served as special counsel for private equity in the Department of Justice's antitrust division. He is the author of "Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America" and the forthcoming "When Companies Run the Courts: Forced Arbitration and America's Secret Justice System." 

 

Federico Campagna is an Italian philosopher and writer based in London.His is the author of Otherworlds: Mediterranean Lessons on Escaping History (Bloomsbury, 2025), Prophetic Culture: recreation for adolescents (Bloomsbury: 2021), Technic and Magic: the reconstruction of reality (Bloomsbury, 2018), and The Last Night (Zero Books, 2013).
He is the director and co-founder of Agora, a fully funded school of art and philosophy produced by the Centre d'Art Contemporain Geneve. He is a Visiting Lecturer in world-building at the MA Fashion, Royal College of Art (London), Lecturer in Intellectual History at the MA Fine Arts, ECAL (Lausanne), and Associate Fellow at the Warburg Institute (London).

Bill Yousman, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the Media Literacy and Digital Culture graduate program at Sacred Heart University. Dr. Yousmans research focuses on media and the construction of ideology, the role media representations play in shaping perceptions of race, and the relationship between media and democracy. 

 

This week, a special roundtable discussion with your Project Censored cohosts and the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Director of Advocacy Seth Stern and Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper come back on the show to dive into the viscous morass of rights violations, including those of ICE, and the complicit courts and judges that could do more to rein them in, SLAPP suits as a weapon to silence truth-tellers, the issue of over-classification that serves to paper over the publics right to know what our government is doing in our name, and much more.  

In the first half of the show, we welcome back the editor-in-chief of Jewish Currents Arielle Angel to talk about the need for new Jewish institutions that reflect not only antizionist Judaism but the myriad traditions of Judaism which zionism has always tried to negate and erase. Arielle also highlights the connections between zionism and American exceptionalism, ideologies that fuel and feed off one another, the power of a grassroots leftist Jewish memory culture, and the pitfalls of self-denial on the Jewish left.

Next up, editor for Workday Magazine, Sarah Lazare comes on the show to discuss the purposefully obfuscated connection between labor organizing and immigrants rights. Sarah outlines ways in which workers are building solidarity in the face of violent raids and harassment, and how shallow and extractive corporate media practices perpetuate misinformation and violence.

Mickey Huff hosts this week’s program.

 

This week we are rejoined by media scholar Nolan Higdon to discuss his latest work, "Unmasking Epstein: Power, Blackmail, and the Press's Failures." We also delve into the increasingly problematic world of Artificial Intelligence, the challenges and threats AI poses, and the importance of critical AI literacy. 

Next, Mickey speaks to Brown University first year student James Libresco about his latest Dispatch on Media and Politics for Project Censored titled, "A Direct Attack on Freedom of Speech: Trump Takes on Higher Ed." Libresco addresses media freedom and the student press, as well as the massive pushback to Trump's so-called "Compact for Excellence in Higher Education," which actually poses major threats to academic freedom.

 

Notes: 

Nolan Higdon is is a political analyst, author, host of The Disinfo Detox Podcast, curator of the Gaslight Gazette, a lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Project Censored National Judge. Higdons areas of concentration include critical AI literacy, podcasting, digital culture, news media history and propaganda, and critical media literacy. He is a regular commentator on current affairs for several media networks in the San Francisco Bay Area. All of Higdons work is available at Substack. 

James Libresco was co-editor in chief of Theogony, his high school paper for the 2024-25 school year, where he covered education, city politics, and breaking news. His work has been published in The Alexandria Times, The Alexandria Gazette Packet and The Zebra, among other outlets. James recently published a Dispatch on Media and Politics for Project Censored on Trump's attacks on higher education and is currently a first year student at Brown University studying political science.